Last week was a good one for me. Nothing exciting or out of the ordinary happened. It was a boring, normal, good week. We all deserve such boring good weeks, don’t we?
I have been trying to write my daily gratitudes every night, but sometimes I forget to journal. Then I realized, I haven’t completely stopped writing gratitudes. Some nights I have written in my notebook, some nights on the app, sometimes on google docs, and sometimes I’ve written in the morning or during the day.
Although I did not consistently use the same writing medium, I still found myself consistently writing. At first, I saw this as a problem because I tended to switch between mediums. However, it occurred to me that my focus should not be on the medium I use to write, but on taking the time to reflect on the things that bring me joy and capturing them in some form. Ultimately, that is what deserves my attention and effort.
I had this idea that when I record my gratitudes in one place, I can go back and revisit them. When I first started to write a daily gratitude list years ago, it was in a notebook. A year later, when I checked that book I felt happy. So it got into my head that it is essential to keep all my gratitudes in one place. However, over time, my writing habits became less organized, and I found various outlets to capture my random thoughts. I had it in my head that I needed them in one place to revisit them later. However, the importance of keeping all my gratitudes in one place is not as crucial as I once thought.
In the future, I will have other things to be grateful for. I don’t have to keep track of and carry around all my moments of gratitude as if I am a slave to gratitude. I am grateful regardless of when or where. All I need to do is acknowledge gratitude in my mind. These beautiful moments that make me grateful transpire now, enabling me to feel happiness from within and equipping me to move to the next moment with a grateful heart. That is the purpose of gratitude journaling.
Life gives me surprising lessons time and again. I am thankful that I take the time to think and understand the lessons life teaches me. I am grateful.
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Lovely Vinitha – you have captured the essence of Gratitude through your practice and I commend you on it. The idea is to acknowledge it and feel it within. I have stopped writing them down anywhere now and instead close my eyes and say thanks whenever I notice something good in my life. I feel so peaceful when I do this, and later when the thought of that goodness comes to my mind, it brings a smile to my lips and sparks joy in my heart.
Writing is such a fulfilling activity. It is inspiring to read that you write daily. I haven’t been able to do. Mine is more like monthly gratitude journal.
I love reading my old entries. It does bring back a lot of good memories.
A gratitude post about gratitude journaling – now how out of the ordinary is this! I think the act of expressing gratitude is important and it doesn’t matter whether you do it in your mind or you write it down or whether you write it all in one place or you leave your traces of gratitude everywhere by writing on different mediums.
I will tell you my case. I have a habit (not deliberate) of keeping currency notes in different purses or handbags, sometimes inside different zips of one handbag too and then I forget about where all I have kept the money. Then someday when I pick up a purse or a handbag to carry while going out and I find notes of different denominations, it gives me pleasure (or one may say a sense of delusion) which leaves me happy that I have lots of money lying here and there.
I believe it will be a similar case with you when you go back to different mediums, even when not consciously, and you find your old gratitude entries, you will get a sense of pleasure of being surrounded by gratitude everywhere.
If I don’t make sense here, then we will have a chat about this.
If you are grateful for all the big things and the little things and the significant and the insignificant things in life, then that’s all that matters. Which medium you choose to use to express gratitude is secondary. Gratitude is a way of life for me. I used to write it in my diary earlier, but over time I lost the habit. Now, I express gratitude while praying or during my conversations with God. And it feels so good!
Beautiful post, Vinitha! Gratitude is a wonderful way of focussing on all things that really matter in our lives and the medium can be anything, that suits the situation. Just the act of being grateful can make us “see” our lives and our circumstances in a new light. Who needs an inventory to do that?
It’s so true. You will keep finding more and more things to be grateful for and even if you don’t save every thing you’ve written you will find them . When you are at peace and search within your mind ,”They will flash upon that inward eye.”
Very timely, Vinitha. I’ve been reviewing my gratitude practices too. What I do find though is that I’ve grown deeper in gratitude and acceptance.